[RetailEdge Moderator]

You should be careful when creating discount rules and make sure that you understand how the rules are applied. Unexpected results can occur if an item in contained in multiple rules. Once you create and apply a rule you should always run a test sale with some of the items to which the discount rule applies to make sure that the actual result matches your intended result.

The basic order that rules are applied to an item are as follows:

Buy X, Get Y at Z Percent Off - Item
Buy X, Get Y at Z Percent Off - Group
Mix and Match
Discount Triggered by Quantity Total
Discount Triggered by Sale Total
Rewards - Punch Card - Percent Off
Traditional Customer Discounts
Basic Discount Rules
Basic - Percent Off
Basic - Amount Off
Basic - Fixed Price
Cost Plus - Percent
Cost Plus - Amount
Buy X, Get Y Percent Off
Complete Sale Coupons
Complete Sale - Percent Off
Complete Sale - Amount Off
Rewards - Punch Card - Amount Off
Complete Sale - Weekly Sales Incentive

Group Discounts are processed first. Percentage Discounts are processed subsequent to Group Discounts and will supersede the group discounts if they are greater. The largest Percentage Discount wins.

This can give some unexpected results. For instance if an Item A is in a Buy X, Get Y at Z rule that states that if you buy 1 and you get the next 2 for 50% off, and you also have the Item A, in a rule that says the item should be discounted at 60% off, when you buy three of them, all 3 of Item A will be discounted at 60% off. However, if the percentage rule says that Item A should be discounted at 40% off, after adding 3 to the sales screen you will see the following.

Item A 40% (Percent Discount)
Item A 50% (Buy X Discount)
Item A 50% (Buy X Discount)

This may be more of a discount than you had intended. In addition there is a precedence within the group rules. This is described in the description of the group rule above.

Another example of how you can get some unexpected results with multiple discount rules is as follows:

1. Setup a Buy 3 get 1 at 100% off - Group (buy 3 get the 4th for free for anything in a particular group).
2. Sell 4 different items. The first item costs $1, second $2, third $3, fourth $4.

This discount works is assume a Buy 3 get the 4th (lowest price one) for free (100% off)).

If I add the items to the sales screen the first time I will have the $1 item discounted to $0 (lowest price item). However if I add these 4 items to the sales screen a second time, the $1 dollar item won’t be discounted on the second group of items, but the $3 item will be discounted to $0. You might think that it should be the $1 item again. However the $3 item is the one that gets discounted because it is truly the best discount for the customer and if your customer wanted to get the best discount he/she could just bring up the items as $1,$1, $2, $2 this would discount the $1 to $0 and then the second batch would be $3, $3, $4, $4 and get the $3 discounted to $0.